A kidnapped California baby spurred an Amber Alert that led investigators from south Monterey County, to San Jose, to Salinas on Monday.

An Amber Alert was issued by the California Highway Patrol for an 8-month-old Soledad baby who was in the backseat of car when a thief drove away with it.

Advertisement

A Good Samaritan rescued the baby in San Jose, 100 miles away, and the suspected kidnapper was found by police in Salinas.

A white Honda Accord was stolen at 4:47 a.m. Monday while baby Emiliano Salinas was strapped in a car seat. The car was parked in front of the family's Front Street house in Soledad.

Soledad Deputy Chief of Police Damon Wasson said the boy's father had put Emiliano in the car, kept the engine running, and walked back into their house to retrieve his lunch.

When the father walked back outside, the car was gone.

Three hours later, up in San Jose, a 911 caller reported that a man had a baby in the backseat of a car in the area of Seymour and Walnut Streets.

The man "appeared to be under the influence of drugs" and "was in no condition to care for (a) baby," the 911 caller told San Jose police.

He was pacing and muttering to himself outside the stolen car, witnesses said.

Good Samaritan Mamas Ramirez said the man approached her and her husband, and asked them to take the baby. After getting over the initial shock of the situation, Ramirez feared for little Emiliano's safety.

"We asked 'Who's baby is this?' He said, 'Just take care of the baby and let me get out of here,'" Ramirez said.

Ramirez told her husband, "I'm not letting him leave with this baby."

Ramirez and a nearby construction worker, Colin Blevin, plucked the baby from the stolen car, police and witnesses said.